The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination
by Ann Hoberman & Linda Winston
Bibliography:
Hoberman, Ann & Winston, Linda. The Tree that Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination. New York: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2009. Print.
Poetic Elements: The wonderful thing about this book is that it is a poetry anthology and offers different things for readers who enjoy different kinds of poetry and poetic elements. Some of the poems are longer and full stories, while others are shorter and focus more on the rhyme scheme and figurative language. Sensory details and other poetic elements really vary between the different poems and pages, so it is difficult to say that only certain elements are included. Some poets clearly focused on the voice and emotion of their poems, while others wanted to focus on making them fun and enjoyable. It is interesting seeing this variety in the book.
Appeal: The topics found within this book will most likely interest students to at least pick up the book and give it a try. Science is a popular subject with young adults, and this book is full of poems that discuss different science and nature elements from stars to tunnels. This book will appeal to young readers because most of the poems are short and easy to digest. Longer poems still only extend across two adjacent pages, so it is not overwhelming when one picks up the book and looks through it. Some of the poems are more emotional, but most are fun and require students to use their imagination and understand personification.
Overall Quality: The quality of this book is quite good, especially when it comes to anthologies. I do prefer to read these types of anthologies when I want to read poetry for enjoyment, and this book certainly met that need for me. The poems do not always work together very well when it comes to topic or style, but that does make it interesting for the reader. They are not sure what they might read next, so they continue to flip through the pages.
The Poets: This anthology includes an abundance of poets, some that are very well known, while others I had not heard of before (of course, they may be very well know as well, I have made it clear that I am not very knowledgeable about poetry). Each poet has their own clear style that they bring to the book, making each page different than the last.
Layout: The layout of the book varies a lot as well as it is an anthology. While all of the poems work together well enough and the illustrations pull it all together cohesively, things are still very different. Some poems are short and compact like the spotlight poem, while others spread across two pages, have several stanzas, and are surrounded by relevant illustrations. The poems vary in length and format, some being spaced out to add to the text within.
Spotlight Poem:
"Birth"
by Langston Hughes
Oh, fields of wonder
Out of which
Stars are born,
And moon and sun
And me as well,
Like stroke
Of lightning
In the night
Some mark
To make
Some word
To tell.
Lesson Idea: The format of this poem is one of the most interesting things about it. It is short and easy to understand, so it allows students to focus on the length of the lines, capitalization at the beginning of each line, and limited punctuation. Students can determine why Hughes would write the poem this way, and then try to replicate the format with their own poem.
"Birth"
by Langston Hughes
Oh, fields of wonder
Out of which
Stars are born,
And moon and sun
And me as well,
Like stroke
Of lightning
In the night
Some mark
To make
Some word
To tell.
Lesson Idea: The format of this poem is one of the most interesting things about it. It is short and easy to understand, so it allows students to focus on the length of the lines, capitalization at the beginning of each line, and limited punctuation. Students can determine why Hughes would write the poem this way, and then try to replicate the format with their own poem.
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